On Feb 10, 2006, at 10:44 AM, Bill Janssen wrote: >>> A good entry page tries to speak usefully to all of these >>> communities >>> at the same time, without speaking down to any of them. >> >> Do you really think that there is a large enough audience that would >> be willing to read pages of documentation, but not be willing to >> install anything? > > No. That's why the *first* page is so important. That's why I put > the example of the terminal and "type 'python'" on there. > >> I also think that if we give people the option to use Python without >> installing anything, then they'll choose that option and be >> disappointed because the experience with a newer version has a few >> years more polish and bug fixes... and can simply get them farther >> because it doesn't have any of the limitations that the pre-installed >> one has. > > Not for Python newbies. They've never *seen* the more advanced > versions. Python 2.3 all by itself is a pretty nifty programming > experience, to someone who's not a developer, but wants to write a > script or a simple program. Experienced Python users will of course > probably want to install the newer version first.
Yes, but someone who wants to write a script or a simple program and isn't a developer doesn't imply that they're a terminal jockey. If we get them a double-clickable installer that gets them at least IDLE, then they're set and they don't have to learn UNIX in the process. >> With a downloadable package that sorts out all the issues that need >> to be documented, then we would be able to skirt the whole issue of >> the UNIX crash course. Download this package, double-click to >> install, double-click to start IDLE (or whatever) here. > > I agree. If the 2.4.x installer were bundled with TigerPython24Fix > and some quick-start IDLE app into a single installer, that would be > great, and an improvement over the current situation. (And could it > please *not* have the word "fix" in the title?) It *is* a fix, which is no longer necessary with the current branch (or if built on 2.4). Also, the installer has always had IDLE.app. >> Another thing to consider would be to do something similar to Movable >> Python: >> http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/movpy/ >> >> In this case we would distribute Python as an application, and that >> application when run by itself could have options to "make this >> Python the default from Terminal" or something. > > I like this idea, too. Can we make it happen? Any volunteers? I'd look into it after we get universal framework build with current conventions out the door. -bob _______________________________________________ Pythonmac-SIG maillist - Pythonmac-SIG@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/pythonmac-sig
